Overview

Investment Services

As a full service brokerage firm, Dow Capital Management, LLC provides its clients with comprehensive financial services. We recognize that good investing is only one part of a successful financial life and is just the beginning for creating an enduring monetary legacy for your family.

Portfolio Monitoring & Investment Management

Dow Capital Management’s major emphasis is assisting clients with the management of their portfolios. Our primary focus is helping clients assemble and maintain private account portfolios of directly owned high-quality, growth-oriented common stocks and high-quality bonds.

Notably, because of our firm’s depth of experience, clients benefit from portfolios that are unencumbered by inefficient “packaged products” such as mutual funds, variable annuities, and hedge funds.

We monitor accounts for diversification, quality, growth orientation, and other relevant metrics. Taking an active oversight role, we regularly provide clients with our recommendations to help ensure that their portfolios adhere to the Dow Capital Management’s discipline and have a maximum potential for investment success.

Retirement Planning

We provide assistance with nearly all aspects of retirement planning, including comprehensive quantitative analyses and assessments of the adequacy of retirement resources relative to retirement needs. Related services include helping to select appropriate IRAs, establishing corporate and self-employed retirement plans, and guiding individuals faced with either investment or distribution choices regarding their employer-sponsored retirement plans.

We are often asked, “How much can I spend in retirement?” After reviewing your current retirement plan and assets, we can provide some quantitative feedback to this question.

Wealth Preservation—Estate Planning Overview

Although Dow Capital Management itself does not give estate-planning advice or prepare legal documents, we facilitate the estate-planning process for families facing potential tax liabilities. An important aspect of this service is helping clients understand key strategies that they may want to address with their attorneys. These concepts may include: using a legal life estate or bypass trust to take advantage of the credit shelter exemption, reallocating highly appreciated assets between spouses to capture maximum benefit of cost basis step-up, gifting, converting IRAs, and naming retirement-plan beneficiaries for maximum tax advantage. We can also discuss needs for durable powers of attorney and the naming of primary and successor agents.

Related Financial Consultation

Clients bring to us a variety of questions that are not always directly related to investing. Drawing on our own life experiences and having been witness to innumerable client situations, we can frequently be a good resource for information and perspective. Sometimes, we may simply act as a sounding board, or play devil’s advocate, for client ideas or concerns.

The types of questions we often help address include:

Can I afford to make a major purchase?

What is the best way to save for my child’s or grandchild’s college costs?

What kind of life insurance should I have and how much? (We are strong advocates of simple term insurance.)

Which family members should I name as my trustees?

What type of mortgage is best for me?

Can I afford to make a major charitable gift and what asset would I give?

Could you recommend a good attorney or accountant?

In short, as their families’ investment office, we hope that our clients think of us as their family friends and turn to us as needs arise.

For Prospective Clients

For prospective clients, we can help you understand the character of the portfolio you own, why it may or may not meet your expectations, and how we think you might improve upon its potential to serve your needs. Specifically, our analysis addresses portfolio quality and the portfolio’s potential to incur an irrecoverable-type loss. We consider, as well, the list’s growth potential and operational efficiency.

Give us a call and see how we might be able to provide you with a more successful investment and financial future.